Rachel Dolezal's Parents Address Their Daughter's Race In Video Interview, Say She 'Warned Her Siblings' Not To Out Her

'Her dishonesty is very concerning.'

Controversy is surrounding Rachel Dolezal, the Spokane NAACP chapter president who, it is now alleged, is not actually African-American, as she claimed on official forms and in interviews. The Huffington Post conducted a live interview with her parents, Lawrence and Ruthanne Dolezal, who previously told the Washington Post, "We are both of Caucasian and European descent — Czech, German and a few other things." The Dolezals adopted four black children when Rachel was in high school, but her biological family is culturally and genetically white. Lawrence and Ruthanne told the interviewer that Rachel "wants to reject us and her identity as being our daughter," though they said they could think of no reason why she would feel that way. Rachel has alleged that she was abused as a child.

The Dolezals also said that their home was always very welcoming to people of all ethnicities and that they were interested in diverse cultures. They first learned of that their daughter was identifying as a black woman "some years ago" from a Spokane newspaper article, said Ruthanne.

Perhaps the most startling information the Dolezals shared in the Huffington Post interview was that Rachel had "cautioned" her four younger siblings not to reveal her real race. Ruthanne said that her brothers and sister now feel that "she's been outed." "They did not enjoy having to be secretive about her identity," alleges Rachel's mother, but Rachel "warned them not to let it out, not to blow her cover." She also told her parents not to come to any public events where she or her husband, Kevin, would be seen, Ruthanne said.

When asked if Rachel's choice to identify as a different race could be a sign of some sort of mental illness, her parents seemed unwilling to make that leap, but Ruthanne said that Rachel often "sought to reinvent reality."